WILLEMSTAD — The governmental deliberation which the Caribbean overseas territories started Thursday morning, and lasted until the early evening, regards the central theme of the transfer of Land tasks to the upcoming new lands Curaçao and St. Maarten. Financial-economical and personal considerations play a crucial role here.
For some of the tasks (for example aviation and meteorology), St. Maarten does not have the funds and the staff to independently implement this entirely per the end of next year – which is still the target date for the lands becoming operational.
It would therefore be more practical and affordable to ‘buy’ these services from Curaçao – which it already did on behalf of the Antilles – and thereby ‘follow’ in order to manage this task in due course with their own personnel. The compensation, which Curaçao would receive for these services, would still be less than the costs to force an immediate independent implementation.
For that matter, there are perhaps tasks, which could best be carried out collectively – as Curaçao and Aruba have been doing for some twenty years now with regard to aviation and meteorology.
The Caribbean overseas territories will review per task what the most workable solution is so that that task in any case is carried out, either by one entity, or in cooperation with others.
For the Netherlands, with whom a political deliberation will take place at the end of this month, ‘the actual responsibility of carrying out government tasks – and not just on paper’, is a critical condition to agree with the land status of Curaçao and St. Maarten.
NEWS ARTICLE TAKEN FROM WWW.AMIGOE.COM